No letters, no emails, no lists at embassies. One tool, one confirmation number, and a window that closes with the fiscal year.
Reviewed by Ekaterina Fitenko, Esq. — Florida Bar #1064536. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field, she advises Diversity Visa entrants and selectees on eligibility and filings, in English and Russian.
A Diversity Visa result exists in exactly one place: Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website at dvprogram.state.gov. In the published instructions for the most recent completed cycle the Department of State put it in capital letters — Entrant Status Check "will be the ONLY means by which the Department of State notifies selectees."
The same document closes the other channels one by one. The Department "will not mail notification letters or notify selectees by email." U.S. embassies and consulates "will not provide a list of selectees." And on the question people ask most: "The U.S. government has never sent emails to notify individuals that they have been selected."
That is not a security warning appended to a process. It is the process.
To open your result you need the confirmation number issued on the screen at the moment your entry was accepted, together with your name and year of birth. The number is shown once. It is not emailed to you, and it is not reissued on request the way a password is reset.
So the single most valuable thing you take away from the entry is a saved copy of that screen — as a file, in more than one place. A photograph of a monitor counts. A memory does not.
Entrants who are not selected are also notified only through the same tool. There is no message, no letter and no notice of any kind for anyone. This matters practically: people who hear nothing often assume the cycle is still running, and stop checking before the answer is posted.
Check the tool yourself on the date results open for your cycle, and check it again later in the period — selections can be made in more than one round.
Entrant Status Check stays open for a defined period for each cycle — for the most recent completed cycle, from early May until at least 30 September of the following year. That end date is not administrative housekeeping: eligibility under the program ceases at the end of the fiscal year, and a consular officer may not issue a diversity visa after it, whatever stage the case has reached.
A selectee who learns of the selection late loses the months that the process needs. Checking early is not eagerness; it is the only way to have time.
The instructions say plainly: "Do not rely on someone else to check and inform you." Where an agency submitted the entry and kept the confirmation number, the applicant cannot verify anything and is dependent on a party with an interest in the answer. That arrangement is the mechanism behind a documented fraud pattern, in which the entry information is withheld until a fee is paid.
Open Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov and enter your confirmation number, name and year of birth. That is the only channel: the Department of State does not mail letters or send emails announcing selection.
No. The Department has published that the U.S. government "has never sent emails to notify individuals that they have been selected." Any such message, however official it looks, did not come from the program.
There is no reliable recovery: the number appears once, on the confirmation screen, and is not reissued on request. This is why the screen is saved as a file at the moment of submission.
It means the tool reported a result for your entry, and that result is what it says. Those who are not selected are notified only through the same tool, so read what the page states rather than treating the absence of a letter as information.
The tool gives a case number and instructions, and the next filing depends on where you are: the DS-260 immigrant visa application for consular processing, or adjustment of status under INA 245(a) if you are in the United States and otherwise eligible. Both run against the end of the fiscal year.
$200 for 30 minutes, in English or Russian. Call (305) 315-3425 or email fitenkolaw@gmail.com to schedule, or start with the intake form.
This article is informational only and is not legal advice. Immigration rules, fees and processing times change; confirm current requirements with the agency or with counsel before relying on anything here.
Fitenko Law PLLC, 11555 Heron Bay Blvd, Suite 277, Coral Springs, FL 33076 (main office); 600 Three Islands Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009 (by appointment only). Phone: (305) 315-3425. Email: fitenkolaw@gmail.com